The traditional title for the pericope from Luke 19 is the Parable of the Pounds. That reading is superficially similar to the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), which teaches the imperative of diligence in the work of God. In the case of Luke 19:11-27, however, the real point is quite different.

Textual context matters. Immediately prior to the parable we read of our Lord and Savior’s encounter with Zacchaeus, a man who worked as a tax collector for the Roman Empire. He was a literal tax thief, although, as we read, he changed his ways and made more restitution than the Law of Moses required. Immediately after the parable Jesus enters Jerusalem at the beginning of that fateful Holy Week. The story of Zacchaeus explains verse 11a (“As they were listening to this”); the context of the impending Triumphal Entry is crucial to understanding the pericope which Volume IX (1995) of The New Interpreter’s Bible calls “The Parable of the Greedy and Vengeful King.”

The nobleman in the parable resembles members of the Herodian Dynasty, especially Archelaus (reigned 4 B.C.E.-6 C.E.), son of Herod the Great (reigned 47-4 B.C.E.), Governor of Galilee then the client king of the Jews. Herod the Great, who traveled to Rome to seek the title of king, reigned as one because the Roman Republic then Empire granted him that title. He was also a cruel man. Biblical and extra-Biblical sources agree on this point, constituting a collection of stories of his tyranny and cruelty. In Matthew 2 he ordered the Massacre of the Innocents, for example. Archelaus, a son of Herod the Great, ruled as the Roman-appointed ethnarch of Idumea, Judea, and Samaria, after traveling to Rome. Archelaus sought the title of King, which the Emperor Augustus denied him after meeting with a delegation of Jews. Archelaus, mentioned by name in Matthew 2:22, was also cruel and tyrannical, victimizing Jews and Samaritans alike. On one day alone he ordered the massacre of 3000 people at the Temple precinct in Jerusalem. Eventually Augustus deposed him. Herod Antipas, full brother of Archelaus, ruled on behalf of the Roman Empire as the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea from 4 B.C.E. to 39 C.E., when he sought the title of King and found himself banished to Gaul instead. Antipas, a chip off the old block, ordered the execution of St. John the Baptist (Matthew 14:3-10) and sought to kill Jesus, who called the tetrarch “that fox” (Luke 13:32).

A trope in the interpretation of parables of Jesus is that one of the characters represents God. That does not apply accurately to the parable in Luke 19:11-27. In fact, the unnamed nobleman, who orders the execution of his political opponents, is an antitype of Jesus, who enters Jerusalem triumphantly in the next pericope and dies on the cross a few days later, at the hands of Roman officials. The Kingdom of God is quite different from the Roman Empire, built on violence and exploitation. The kingship of Jesus is quite different from the model that the Roman Empire offers.

Amos 5 condemns those in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah who profess to follow Yahweh, yet oppose the establishment of justice, especially for the needy. There is nothing wrong with religious rituals themselves, but engaging in them while perpetuating injustice makes a mockery of them. God is unimpressed, we read.

God, in Psalm 50, addresses those who recite divine statutes yet do not keep them, who think wrongly that God is like them. They will not find deliverance in God, we read. That Psalm fits well with Amos 5, of course. Then there are the evildoers who do not even pretend to honor God and do not change their ways. Their path is doomed in the long run also.

One must reject the false dichotomy of deeds versus creeds. In actuality, I argue, deeds reveal creeds. One might detect a dichotomy between deeds and words, but, barring accidents, no dichotomy between deeds and creeds exists.

What do your deeds reveal about your creeds, O reader?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 1, 2016 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAMUEL STENNETT, ENGLISH SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER; AND JOHN HOWARD, ENGLISH HUMANITARIAN

THE FEAST OF SAINT JUSTIN MARTYR, APOLOGIST

THE FEAST OF SAINT PAMPHILUS OF CAESAREA, BIBLE SCHOAR AND TRANSLATOR; AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS

Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), of The Episcopal Church, contains an adapted two-years weekday lectionary for the Epiphany and Ordinary Time seasons from the Anglican Church of Canada. I invite you to follow it with me.

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Revelation 4:1-11 (Revised English Bible):

After this I had a vision: a door stood open in heaven, and the voice that I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said,

Come up here, and I will show you what must take place hereafter.

At once the Spirit came upon me. There in heaven stood a throne. On it sat One whose appearance was like jasper or cornelian, and round it was a rainbow, bright as emerald. In a circle about this throne were twenty-four other thrones, and on them were seated twenty-four elders, robed in white an wearing gold thrones. From the throne came flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. Burning before the throne were seven flaming torches, the seven spirits of God, and in front of it stretched what looked a sea of glass or a sheet of ice.

In the centre, round the throne itself, were four living creatures, covered with eyes in front and behind. The first creature was like a lion, the second like an ox, the third had a human face, and the fourth was like an eagle in flight. Each of the four living creatures had six wings, and eyes all round and inside them. Day and night unceasingly they sing:

Holy, holy, holy is God the sovereign of all, who was, and is, and is to come!

Whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to the One who sits on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders prostrate themselves before the One who sits on the throne and they worship him who lives for ever and ever. As they lay their crowns before the throne they cry:

You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honour and power, because you created all things; by your will they were created and have their being!

Psalm 150 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

1 Hallelujah!

Praise God in his holy temple;

praise him in the firmament of his power.

2 Praise him for his mighty acts;

praise him for his excellent greatness.

3 Praise him with the blast of the ram’s-horn;

Praise him with lyre and harp.

4 Praise him with timbrel and dance;

praise him with strings and pipe.

5 Praise him with resounding cymbals;

praise him with loud-clanging cymbals.

6 Let everything that has breath

praise the LORD.

Hallelujah!

Luke 19:11-28 (Revised English Bible):

While they were listening to this, Jesus went on to tell them a parable, because he was now close to Jerusalem and they [the crowd who disapproved of him eating with Zacchaeus] thought the kingdom of God might dawn at any moment. He said,

A man of noble birth went on a long journey abroad, to have himself appointed king and then return. But first he called then of his servants and gave each a sum of money, saying, “Trade with this while I am away.” His fellow-citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, “We do not want this man as our king.” He returned however as king, and sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, to find out what profit each had made. The first came and said, “Your money, sir, has increased tenfold.” ”Well done,” he replied, “you are a good servant, trustworthy in a very small matter, you shall have charge of ten cities.” The second came and said, “Here is your money, sir; I kept it wrapped up in a handkerchief. I was afraid of you because you are a hard man: you draw out what you do not put in and reap what you do not sow.” ”You scoundrel!” he replied. ”I will condemn you out of your own mouth. You knew me to be a hard man, did you, drawing out what I never put in, and reaping what I did not sow? Then why did you not put my money on deposit, and I could have claimed it with interest when I came back?” Turning to his attendants he said, “Take the money from him and give it to the man with the most.” ”But sir,” they replied, “he has ten times as much already.” ”I tell you,” he said, “everyone one has will be given more; but whoever has nothing will forfeit even what he has. But as for those enemies of mine who did not want me for their king, bring them here and slaughter them in my presence.”

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The Collect:

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The first three chapters of Revelation are relatively straight-forward, given that the book is an apocalypse, and therefore told in symbolic language. Now, however, in Chapter 4, we begin to encounter denser symbolism. I opened up commentaries and tried to sort out the symbols. Along the way I learned three or four ways to interpret some of the same symbols. In such cases, I have chosen to follow one interpretation. For the sake of succinctness, we read of God, enthroned in glory and majesty in Heaven. The martyrs are there, as is the Holy Spirit in its completeness. The four living creatures, imagery borrowed from ancient sources and elsewhere in the Bible, see everything. The living creature like a lion represents the power of the Son of God. The one like an ox indicates the sacrificial nature of the Son of God. The living creature with a human face represents the incarnation of the Son of God. And the one like an eagle in flight symbolizes the gift of the Holy Spirit. God, the center of attention, is sovereign.

We turn now to the reading from Luke. Archelaus and two brothers inherited parts the “kingdom” of their father, Herod the Great, when he died in 4 B.C.E. But Archelaus, in order to claim his inheritance, had to visit his overlord, the Emperor Augustus. He was the figure on whom Jesus based the king in Luke 19. The setting for the Parable of the Pounds (similar to the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30) is after our Lord’s visit with Zacchaeus at Jericho but prior to his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. So the standard interpretation of the parable is, “Choose Jesus, or else!” Yet I cannot bring myself to identify the king in the parable with God.

The lectionary readings for this day present us with conflicting types of kingship: omnipotent and benevolent (in Revelation) and cruel and subject to higher human authority (in Luke). The former is forever, but the latter is temporal. Archelaus, despite the power he wielded, died. His position in life depended on the identity of his father and the favor of the Roman Emperor, two factors he could not determine. He was a glorified governor or procurator. And, as far as I can tell, he is mostly forgotten these days; I, an eager student of history, had to look him up.